My dogs aren't utilized as defense tools. I've made sure that I have the proper tools for personal defense.

But, I've no reason to believe if I were attacked and was fighting the attacker, my dogs would join in. Would they create a direct bite to the jugular and take the attacker down? No. That's silly. Would they, in their excitement bite me? I'm thinking that would happen.

If I were to turn and run from an attacker, would my dogs hold them off long enough for me to make my get away? No, they'd run with me. They look to me for direction.

My first GSD was a show line dog. I was in my early teens. She loved everyone. Never met a stranger. Never even showed fear aggression. Social butterfly from the get go. She hated water. I was attacked by a stranger in a swimming pool. He was attempting to rape me. The dog jumped into the swimming pool & bit the man in the face. Why? I wasn't able to scream or shout (he held me under the water). How could she have known? What was her trigger? My friend was there and she jumped in to help me. The dog jumped in first. Why? It has to be because of the relationship established with the dog and genetics.

No real bites.. lots in training. However, I did have a man come at me when I was walking Duke. I felt nervous once I saw the man acting strange (it was super late at night after I got home from work), I told Duke to watch the man. He did so... the man came at me and Duke lunged forward at him. If he came any closer, I do believe that would have been the mans arm instead of air. The guy ran off.

Back when I only had Zira, we were renting out a room. After a lot of issues with piece of scum, we evicted him. Several weeks later, I was at home alone with Zira next to me on the couch watching TV. I heard the garage open, and then the door from the garage was forced open... I was very scared, thought someone was breaking in.... it was our old roommate (who we believe was trying to break in to steal some stuff from us). Zira flew at him with her jaws open. Thankfully, she has a good recall. I called her back and called the cops.

My dogs are not just here to protect, they are first and foremost our companions and pets. However, when it comes down to it.... I do feel they will absolutely do what they need to do to keep us safe.

Duke's trained, Zira is not. Storm is in training for personal protection. She will be a beast when she's full grown... I doubt anyone will make it into this house with my 3! lol

I had a chow that had absolutely no training. When a nutty lady tried to grab my little sister, Nicco bit her hard enough to break the skin. I am not sure about Fiona. She is training to be a SD, so unlikely to be protective. Have not been in a situation where I need protection yet. I am a large female and if you did not know I was disabled, I look like I could flatten you.

OH, if I had to use my dogs, it would be more of like... a gang fight. I'd be right there in the mix pounding on the assailant. Might even growl too

LOL same here! When my dog attacked my ex, I had a moment of shock where I just froze, because I never thought he would hit me (or I wouldn't have been dating him in the first place!) or that my dog would bite someone and it took me a minute to process the sight of my 35-pound dog hanging on my boyfriend's arm as the 6'4" guy punched the dog in the face and neck trying to get him to let go--but then I was on my feet, simultaneously dialing 911 and trying to protect my dog!

FWIW, it's a cool story in a way, but I hope I never have a dog have to protect me again. We had to go through a whole investigation with my ex alleging that my dog just randomly attacked him and trying to get the dog put down or to sue me and my landlord (for allowing me to keep the dog). It was only when it came to light that he had a previous domestic violence conviction (which I did not know about prior to the investigation, this was pre-ubiquitous internet) and when two of my neighbors (apartment with thin walls) testified that he had verbally threatened me and they believed he was going to hit me (one had actually even called the police before I did) that he backed down. The bite was ruled a justified bite and we suffered no long-term consequences for it, but my goodness it was probably one of the most stressful times in my life. I spent most of it sure that I was going to have to euthanize my dog for doing nothing but protecting me from a bully who meant to hurt me.

I just write that because sometimes I read posts (not necessarily any in this thread) where people seem to glorify those situations or whatever, but it's really not a good position to be in at all. The video in the OP bothered me because of this--I think it's cruel to the dogs to "test" this kind of thing (except as is done in structured protection training with a dog who is mentally prepared for it, not a dog who is scared and defending himself/his owner), and I think it's weird to even spend much time thinking about. I think about how my dogs would react when threads like this come up, but normally I just figure that the very fact I have a GSD (or any other dog, really!) is enough to scare off any random person who might mean me harm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheyanna

She is training to be a SD, so unlikely to be protective.

My dog who bit my ex is actually a SD. I sometimes think that his feeling of responsibility for me is part of why he did bite when I was actually attacked (and as I said, he's super friendly to everyone who isn't threatening me!). But, he's also a scrappy little beast with a strong sense of right and wrong--we often joke that he's the dog police. My GSD, Hector, was attacked by a neighbor's roaming Great Pyrenees maybe 6-8 months ago. The GP had Hector pinned on his back and was still biting him as Hector screamed, so Scooter jumped in and kept the other dog occupied by biting him and then retreating too quickly for the GP to catch him until I could get the other dogs in the house, then Scooter ran to me and went inside too and I called the neighbor. Poor Hector had some significant wounds on his neck and chest (which my very apologetic neighbor paid for treatment of), Scooter was unharmed, and the GP had a few scratches but no serious bites. I think that dog would have killed Hector if Scooter hadn't stepped in. Sometimes I think that dog is just a superhero in dog form. LOL

(and yes I know dog fights have nothing to do with human aggression--but this dog does have a history of stepping in to protect vulnerable people, dogs and even chickens!)

I don't expect my dog's to protect me, but I will protect them no matter what.

I've always joked, someone EVER so much as touches a hair on my dog, they shouldn't worry about HIM biting them. It's me they should worry about

Very interesting stories from everyone, of their dogs stepping up to the plate

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"Make sure my shepherd dog remains a working dog, for I have struggled all my life long for that aim." - Max Von Stephanitz

I would say any dog would protect its owner if the owner was being attacked. Especially larger dogs, guardian breeds, herders etc.

My dogs have shown that they will protect me. I don't know how far they will go but i do see there drive change when there is a more serious atmosphere around certain people or situations.

My Boxer Lab mix is really friendly and goofy enough but he gets this intense look if somebody drunk stops to talk to me or if he senses any danger. When he was young he wanted to attack some guy who was shouting at us. I've hardened him up with some bite training but he showed more defense when younger with no training. Now he is solid and i know he got my back covered but with out any fear of being aggressive for no reason.

My Bullmastiif lab mix has shown good protecting instinct too. I'd regard her as having a high defense drive. When she doesn't trust strangers she'll stand by my side and give them a growl. I know she has a demon inside her awaiting any attacker. She has no training except obedience. She can be on the aggressive side with people but I've trained her not to be aggressive.

I know other dogs (lab crosses) and they will step up to protect there owners and they have no training what so ever.

I have not read through the responses here yet but my daughter had me watch this video with her the other night on youtube and it drove me INSANE watching it. The dogs in the beginning were responding to what looked like a SchH set up and reacted accordingly. The first dog who was a year old was not acting defensively it was more prey/play so it wasn't "protecting" her. The last dogs who were untrained were already fearful in their nature so using confident vs not confident/fearful dogs does NOT give you a controlled study plus the untrained dogs he stood up and walked over to them normally where as with the trained dogs he was suspicious at a distance working them up. HUGE difference. Just too many inaccuracies to make it a simple trained vs untrained but to those who don't know any better they are going to oooh and ahh over it all. I about lost it and then saw this person has comments disabled on youtube so I'm assuming others who train in protection sports probably were bombarding the video with tons of comments about it and he decided to shut it off so no one could comment on it. I had some people who say they were all GSD's so those "trained" ones probably knew her and thats why they responded which drove me insane also because I doubt it was that at all. While I don't believe every untrained dog will respond I do believe there are some that will the same as not all dogs can be trained in protection work because they don't have the temperament for it. I do however think a well balanced confident dog would probably try something to protect their family in a real threat but not all dogs have the temperament. A dog who cowers when someone approaches them is not a dog who will defend their home and family and even if the dog attacks it will most likely be out of fear and not true protection anyways. Not a simple question of trained vs untrained as they are trying to make people believe.

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i assume we are talking about our dogs protecting us against a bad person not another animal.

my female would definitely bark and carry on if someone were to try and assalt us. not sure how far she would go as far as bitting. i do believe training is needed for protection in that area unless you have a fear aggressive dog that is protecting itself. as far as other animals all bets are off, because she would fight them off.

my male is fear aggressive, so not sure what he would do, at first he might try to protect himself, but if the person got real aggressive i think he would retreat. as far as an animal attack, same thing he would go forward in a threat, but if he sensed the animal was to aggressive he would retreat.

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